Tuesday Report

By Barry Wood

Now here’s a surprise. The best match on the second day of the PTT Pattaya Open wasn’t the one between top seed and world number five Vera Zvonareva and Andreja Klepac. Nor was it the one between second seed Caroline Wozniacki and Yung-Jan Chan. It was between a player ranked 945 in the world and Sania Mirza, who just became the first Indian woman ever to win a Grand Slam title when she won the Australian Open mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi.

What made it so good? A 17-year old playing only her second ever tournament on the WTA Tour. She is Thai, and her name is Nicha Lertpitaksinchai, which is a bit of a mouthful but that’s the way Thai names are. That might be why they invented wide-screen tvs, so their names could fit. Nicha lost 7-6 7-5, but she led 5-3 in the first set and held four set points at 5-4, and then she led 5-3 in the second set and held another set point at 5-4. This girl can play, and after having the world’s number one junior in (here we go again) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, things are definitely looking good for Thai tennis. Here’s what Sania had to say.

"She doesn’t play like she’s 945 in the world. It’s obviously very tough when you’re coming out and playing someone and you don’t know how they are. I hadn’t even seen her before this morning. I know people used to feel that way towards me when I had just come out. You really have no idea what to expect. But honestly, I thought she was playing, if not top 50 but at least top 75, top 100 tennis. She had everything. She was up 5-3 both sets and I raised my game a little bit and she couldn’t close it out, but that’s just experience I think and that’s going to come.

"It was a tough match to pull out because one, she’s someone you don’t know, two she’s a person from the country you’re playing in and you know you’re going to have the crowd against you, and third she was very good. She was doing everything. She was serving well when she needed to, she was not just hitting the ball like other 900-ranked players do. She was rolling it when she needed to, she was changing the pace really well, so it was a really good match and I’m happy that I came through and that I played well when I needed to."

Zvonareva also had a bit of a battle on her hands, but she came through 6-4 6-3. It was a bit ugly, lots of hard-hitting from the baseline and plenty of errors. Vera even served up seven double-faults, but it was the double-faults that Klepac hit that made the real difference. The Slovenian broke to lead 2-0, but then double-faulted on break point in the next game. And then she did exactly the same thing in her next service game to fall behind 3-2. Then guess what. At 3-3 in the second set she did it a third time. The Russian then broke again for the match when Klepac tried a dropshot when match point down, and it fell short.

"It was a tough match," said Zvonareva. "I think I’m a slow starter and for me it’s very difficult to play the first, second match of the tournament. Then I’m able to produce much better tennis later in the tournament. And especially she was a tough player today. She was serving pretty good, staying aggressive and I was a bit slow, a few too many unforced errors. I wasn’t executing my shots perfectly, but at the end of the day I won the match and did everything I needed to do to win it."

The number four seed played as well, and she was Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer. She faced Urszula Radwanska, who is the younger sister of 2008 winner Agnieszka. Urszula is unlikely to match her sister’s achievements though, as she lacks her temperament. She screams and hollers and hurls her racquet to the ground because she is under the impression that she can win every point. Anyway, she lost, 6-4 3-6 6-1.

Wozniacki? Nothing much to say there. She lost the first two games and then gave up just one more in the entire match. 6-3 6-0, 67 minutes.